A Historical Summary
Paris experienced one of the most disastrous air raids of the war on the night of March 11, 1918, when nine squadrons of German airplanes, aggregating nearly sixty units, took part in an attack on the city and suburbs. Several buildings were demolished and set on fire. The number of persons killed was 34, and there were in addition 79 injured, 88 of these casualties being in Paris.
In addition to the bomb victims, 66 persons were suffocated through crowding in a panic into a Metropolitan (subway) Railway entrance to take refuge from the raiders. These were for the most part women and children.
A fog which had covered the city in the morning settled down again in the early evening. It was thick enough to cause the general belief that there was little chance that the Germans would attempt an air raid. This belief, however, was shattered at 9:10 o'clock, when the warning was sounded of the approach of hostile aircraft. The raid ended shortly after midnight, with a loss to the Germans of four machines, which were brought down by the French anti-aircraft defenses.
Mr. Baker, the United States Secretary of War, was in conference with General Tasker H. Bliss, the American Chief of Staff, in a hotel suite when the air alarm was sounded. Secretary Baker was not disturbed by the noise of the sirens or the barrage of the anti-aircraft guns, but the hotel management, fearing for the safety of himself and his party, persuaded the members to descend to the wine cellar, where later they were joined by Major Gen. William M. Black.
Mr. Baker, in the course of a statement the following day, said: "It was my first experience of the actualities of war and a revelation of the methods inaugurated by an enemy who wages the same war against women and children as against soldiers. If his object is to damage property, the results are trifling when compared with his efforts. If his object is to weaken the people's morale, the reply is given by the superb conduct of the people of Paris. Moreover, aerial raids on towns, which are counterpart of the pitiless submarine war and the attacks against American rights, are the very explanation of the reasons why America entered the war. We are sending our soldiers to Europe to fight until the world is delivered from these horrors."
THE ENEMY MACHINES
George Prade, a leading French authority on aircraft, told a newspaper correspondent that the German airplanes used in the attack on Paris were the result of a construction program decided on by the German Staff last Summer to meet in advance what is generally known in France as the American aviation program.
When it was announced that the Americans had decided to construct an enormous air fleet for service on the western front, the German War Staff developed plans for much more powerful machines. In June and July, 1917, they began the construction in series of more than 2,000 engines much higher powered than those in previous use. These consisted of Mercedes engines of 260 horse power with six cylinders and Maybach and Benz, both 250 horse power, and with six cylinders. These engines took the place of heavier but less powerful six and eight cylinder engines, ranging from 225 to 235 horse power. The Germans thus not only gained in power, but definitely adopted a plan for planes with two motors and two independent propellers. Each new machine was built with three chasses, a middle one carrying the crew, and two outside, each carrying an engine and a propeller. Three distinct types were developed, known, respectively, as Gothas, Friedrichshafens, and A. E. G.'s.
The length of wings ranges from 72½ to 86 feet. The propellers in earlier machines were placed at the rear, but now they are on the front of the cars. Machines of all three types carry either three or four men, and are fitted with three appliances for launching bombs. The projectiles vary enormously, ranging from aerial torpedoes, the smallest of which weighs two hundredweight, down to small shrapnel bombs. Each of these machines carries a minimum of 153 gallons of petrol and 15 gallons of oil, sufficient for at least a four hours' flight. Their average speed is between 80 and 90 miles an hour.
Referring to the question of hitting any given target, M. Prade said it was practically impossible to strike any particular objective when a plane was traveling at a rate of thirty-eight to forty yards a second. A bomb must be dropped more or less at random, which is the reason why such form of warfare is simply criminal. It is impossible to tell where the bomb will fall. Three men are generally sufficient to handle a machine, one for each engine and a third to drop bombs. The fourth man carried is generally a pilot, who is able from his knowledge of Paris districts to direct the airplane more or less accurately toward objectives.
Big raiding machines generally are accompanied by a large number of smaller two-seated, single-motor planes of 180 to 260 horse power, such as are generally used for reconnoissance purposes. These planes, of which the Hanover is the newest type, are usually of only thirty-eight to forty feet wing spread, but can get up to 20,000 feet carrying four small bombs.
The raid of March 11 was preceded on March 8 by an almost equally formidable attack on Paris, the casualties being 13 killed and 50 injured. One of the raiding machines, an airplane of the Gotha type, was found in the Forest of Compiègne, where it had fallen while returning from the raid. All four of its occupants were killed. They included Captain Fritz Eckstein, the commander of the raiding squadrons, and an officer of the Kaiser's White Cuirassiers from Potsdam. Three other machines were brought down. Altogether, fifteen trained aviators, mechanics, and pilots were either killed or made prisoner.
BRIEF HISTORICAL SKETCH
Bombardment in 1917 played a more and more important part in aerial operations. The Germans had for some time expended their principal efforts upon aviation on the battlefield; besides, up to 1916 they were averse to night flying. But by the beginning of 1918 they had brought into existence a system of aerial bombardment supplied with powerful machines, and had developed an increasing series of attacks on the French troops, on the camps at the rear, and, alas! on the cities of France. Nancy and Dunkirk are sad examples of their work.
The German squadrons known as Kampfgeschwader, furnished with special trains that transport them to any desired point and placed under the direct authority of the Quartermaster General, make use of great triplanes armed with machine guns and supplied with automatic bomb throwers; the Gothas, which, with their two Mercedes motors of 260 horse power each, can carry 1,200 pounds of explosives and gasoline for five hours, and the Friedrichshafens, whose two Benz motors of 225 horse power each can carry enough gasoline for four hours and twelve bombs totaling half a ton in weight.
It was with these machines—employed in mass formation—that the Germans attempted their great bombing operations in the Autumn of 1917, notably the expedition in November, when in a single night seven groups of airplanes made successive attacks on English cities; also the raid of Dec. 19 on London, when twenty machines took part in the attack on London and caused serious damage, including the work of an incendiary bomb that set fire to a factory and burned it to the ground. It is with these machines which they are still improving, and which they are multiplying by the bold creation of series, that the Germans have vainly sought to hold command of the air during their offensive in Picardy.
The example and threat of the enemy had their effect in France. The French bombarding groups, which, born at the end of 1914, had in 1915 achieved famous flights into the heart of Germany, were compelled, with the advent of aerial combats, to renounce daylight operations, as these had become impossible or too uncertain for their slow and heavy machines, insufficiently armed, and had turned their attention to perilous night expeditions. But, despite successful raids and effective destruction, the French bombing operations remained more or less unsatisfactory.
In the course of 1917 the use of the flying squadrons was finally adapted to the diverse needs of the battle front. In the French offensive at Verdun, while tactical aviation guided the waves of assault, regulated the artillery fire, and furnished information to the General Staff, while the swift airplane chasers, by a vigilant barrage, prevented all observation by enemy machines, the bombarding groups daily took part also in the action by hurling flames and destruction on railway stations, munition depots, storehouses at the rear, and sowing panic among the troops that were preparing to attack.
Equipped at length with machines that combined the indispensable characteristics of speed, power, and armament, enabling them to hold the air in daytime, the French bombardiers attacked arsenals in the interior of Germany, and the British war dispatches of Dec. 25 mentioned a daylight raid of allied air squadrons upon Mannheim, where several fires followed, with heavy explosions at the central railway station and in the factories.
The night groups, which had long made their raids only by moonlight, at length grew accustomed to flying in complete darkness. They multiplied their expeditions against enemy cantonments, railways, aviation fields, factories, and military and industrial centres. The task that remained at the opening of the Spring of 1918 was the fuller co-ordination of the groups of bombardiers.
By that time the French had an excellent daylight airplane as well as successful night machines, and announced the early completion of still better ones. Their projectiles were not inferior to those of the Germans, and their supply was up to the demand. Thus they faced the German offensive fully equipped to hold their own so far as air supremacy was concerned.
RAIDS ON LONDON
London, as well as Paris, received frequent visits from enemy airplanes in February and March, 1918. On the three successive nights of Feb. 16, 17, and 18 German raiders attacked the British metropolis. Twenty-seven persons were killed and forty-one were injured. Many of the German machines failed to reach the city owing to the great improvement which had been effected in the aerial defenses both on the coast and around London itself. Both the anti-aircraft guns and the airmen helped to diminish the casualties. The third night's raid resulted in an entire absence of both casualties and damage to property.
Seven or eight German airplanes made a raid over England on the night of March 7. Two of them reached London and dropped bombs in various districts. Eleven persons were killed and forty-six injured in the metropolitan area. In addition a certain amount of damage was done to dwellings and some people buried under the wreckage.
Zeppelins were again employed by the Germans in a raid on the east coast of England on March 12. One of them dropped bombs on Hull, while the two others wandered for some hours over remote country districts at great altitudes, unloading their bombs in open country before proceeding out to sea again. This was the first Zeppelin raid on England since Oct. 19, 1917. The Germans had sustained such heavy losses in Zeppelins that they had substituted airplanes. [An account of the fate of the Zeppelins is included elsewhere in this issue.]
BRITISH REPRISALS
Reprisals by British aviators have been frequent and drastic. The British Air Ministry, in one of the detailed statements which it issues from time to time, presented the following list of raids into Germany from Dec. 1, 1917, and Feb. 19, 1918, a period of eleven weeks:
| Date. | ||||
| 1917. | Wt. of b'mbs | |||
| Dec. | Objective. | Locality. | Population. | in lbs. |
| 5 | Rly. sidings. | Zweibrucken. | 14,700 | 1,344 |
| 5 | Works | [B]Burbach | 1,096 | |
| 6 | Works | [B]Burbach | 2,216 | |
| 11 | Boot factory | Pirmasens | 34,000 | 1,594 |
| 24 | Factories | Mannheim | 290,000 | 2,252 |
| 1918. | ||||
| Jan. | ||||
| 3-4 | Railways | Nr. Metz | 100,000 | 760 |
| 4-5 | Railways | Nr. Metz | 100,000 | 2,940 |
| 5-6 | Town | [A]Courcelles | 1,344 | |
| 5-6 | Town & rlys. | [A]Conflans | 2,180 | |
| 14 | Munition factory | |||
| & rlys. | Karlsruhe | 140,000 | 2,800 | |
| 14-15 | Steelworks | Thionville | 13,000 | 2,105 |
| 14-15 | Railways | Metz | 100,000 | 524 |
| 14-15 | Railways | [A]Eringen | 280 | |
| 16-17 | Railways | Benadorf | 280 | |
| 16-17 | Town | Ormy | 255 | |
| 16-17 | Searchlight | Vigny | 26 | |
| 21-22 | Steelworks | Thionville | 13,000 | 1,220 |
| 21-22 | Rly. sidings | Bensdorf | 2,210 | |
| Rly. junction | Arnaville | 1,344 | ||
| 24-25 | Steelworks, rlys. | {Thionville | 13,000 | 1,120 |
| and barracks. | {Treves | 48,000 | 809 | |
| 24-25 | Railway | Oberbilig | 280 | |
| 24-25 | Factory | Mannheim | 290,000 | 672 |
| 24-25 | Railway | Saarburg | 9,800 | 280 |
| 24-25 | Steelworks | Thionville | 13,000 | 1,344 |
| 25 | Barracks and | |||
| station | Treves | 48,000 | 1,350 | |
| 27 | Barracks and | |||
| station | Treves | 48,000 | 230 | |
| Feb. | ||||
| 9-10 | Railway | [A]Courcelles | 1,844 | |
| 12 | Town | Offenburg | 15,400 | 2,838 |
| 16-17 | Rly. station | [A]Conflans | 1,488 | |
| 17-18 | Rly. sidings | [A]Conflans | 2,240 | |
| 18 | Steelworks | Thionville | 13,000 | 936 |
| 18 | Barracks and | |||
| station | Treves | 48,000 | 1,250 | |
| 18-19 | Barracks and | |||
| station | Treves | 48,000 | 2,206 | |
| 18-19 | Rly. and gas | |||
| works | Thionville | 13,000 | 650 | |
| 19 | Station | Treves | 48,000 | 2,400 |
| A See Metz. B See Saarbrucken. | ||||
James I. Macpherson, Parliamentary Secretary of the War Office, stated in the House of Commons on March 19 that British airmen had made 255 flights into German territory since October, 1917. The 255 flights constituted 38 raids, and only 10 machines were lost. The aviators dropped 48 tons of bombs.
According to a dispatch from The Hague dated April 3, the damage caused by raids in the Rhenish cities was much more extensive than had been admitted. Places where bombs actually fell were described as "unrecognizable." Of the bombs dropped at Coblenz in the most recent raid, eight did considerable damage. One fell upon a station, one fell amid a company of soldiers going to get food, and others practically destroyed half of the barracks where French prisoners were confined in 1870. In Cologne a branch factory of the Baden Aniline Works was partly destroyed and a number of people were killed and wounded. Great damage also was done at Mainz. It was also reported that much damage was done at Düsseldorf. After the raids the authorities made every effort to clear up the wreckage as rapidly as possible, and the town was made to resume normal life immediately.
In connection with military operations on the western front, official reports showed that the Allies had gained great successes in destroying enemy airplanes. The enemy losses in January, 1918, were 292; in February, 273, and in the first seventeen days of March 278. For the week ended March 17 the British Royal Flying Corps alone destroyed 99 German airplanes and drove down 42, losing 23 of its own machines.
One of the most surprising air raids was that of March 11 on Naples, in Southern Italy, far from enemy lines, when a dirigible dropped bombs on the city. Private houses, asylums, and churches were damaged or destroyed and 16 persons killed and 40 injured.
Among the most savage attacks on Paris by aircraft was that in the night of April 12, when two hostile machines got through the anti-aircraft barrage and succeeded in killing 26 persons and injuring 72. One of the torpedoes burst a gas main in the street where it fell, but firemen promptly extinguished the fire that ensued. The American Red Cross was first on the scene of the explosion, and in a very short time had the victims safely removed to a hospital.
The Tale of Zeppelin Disasters
What has become of the German airship fleet initiated by the late Count Zeppelin is now known to the Intelligence Department of the French Army, which has given out a complete list of the 100 or more dirigibles constructed since the first one was launched over Lake Constance.
Up to August, 1914, the total of Zeppelin airships built numbered twenty-five, while since the war the two great works at Friedrichshafen and Staaken have produced between seventy-five and eighty. As the mean period for the building of a Zeppelin is known with certainty to be two months, there must always have been four new airships on the stocks at the same time.
Most of the Zeppelins launched into the air before the war came to grief, thus leaving in the service of the German Army and Navy a fleet of less than a dozen when fighting began. Since then nearly all the dirigibles, old and new, have been handed over to the German Navy, which has used them for many kinds of work, such as bombing expeditions, protection of mine layers and small torpedo boats at sea, chasing submarines, searching for mine fields, and, last and most important, reconnoitring for the High Seas Fleet.
Disaster has attended the flight of an overwhelming majority of these air monsters, no fewer than thirty of which are known to have been destroyed in one way or another, as is shown by the following list:
L-1—Destroyed just before the war, when it fell in the North Sea near Heligoland.
L-2—Burned at Buhlsbuettel just before the war.
L-3—Descended at Famoe in Denmark at beginning of the war, and was burned by its crew.
L-4—Descended at Blaavands Huk, Denmark, at beginning of the war, and was burned by its crew.
L-5—Brought down on the Belgian front in 1915; part of crew saved.
L-6—Burned at Buhlsbuettel in its hangar in September, 1916.
L-7—Brought down by British destroyers off Portland, crew being drowned, in 1915.
L-8—Brought down by machine guns in Belgium, part of crew being killed, in 1915.
L-9—Burned at Buhlfriettel in its hangar at same time as L-6.
L-10—Struck by lightning near Cuxhaven during its initial flights, and lost with its crew.
L-12—Destroyed at Ostend in 1915 when returning from a raid on England.
L-15—Brought down in the Thames, England, in 1916.
L-16—Destroyed on Oct. 19, 1917.
L-18—Burned in a hangar at Tondern in 1916.
L-19—Fell in the Baltic while returning from a raid on England.
L-22—Burned accidentally while coming out of its hangar at Tondern.
L-23—Fell on the English coast.
L-25—Destroyed while being employed as a training balloon at Wildpark.
L-31—Fell in London in 1916.
L-32—Brought down in London in 1916, (Sept. 23-24.)
L-33—Brought down in England, Sept. 23, 1916, and crew interned.
L-35—Brought down in England.
L-39—Brought down at Compiègne, France, March, 1917.
L-40—Fell in the woods near Emden.
L-43—Brought down in July, 1917, at Terscheling.
L-44—Brought down afire at Saint-Clement, Oct. 20, 1917.
L-45—Brought down and burned at Silteron, Oct. 20, 1917.
L-48—Brought down in England, June, 1917.
L-49—Brought down at Bourbonne-les-Bains, Oct. 20, 1917.
L-50—Fell at Dommartin, Oct. 20, 1917.
L-57—Broke up on its first voyage.
The last named is the highest number believed to have been in the service. Missing numbers in the list given above are accounted for as follows:
L-11—Put out of service in 1917 and believed to be in shed at Hage.
L-13—In the shed at Hage since May, 1917.
L-14—School airship at Northolz.
L-17—Believed to have been destroyed at sea.
L-20—Dismantled.
L-21—Dismantled; believed burned at Tondern.
L-24—Dismantled.
L-26—Planned, but never constructed.
L-27, L-28, L-29, and L-30—Planned, but never constructed.
L-34—Believed destroyed off England.
L-37—Attached to Baltic squadron, but believed destroyed.
L-38—Whereabout unknown.
L-41, L-42, L-46, L-47, L-51, L-52, L-53, L-54, L-55, and L-56—In service in the North Sea.
No information is obtainable as to the fate of the remainder of the Zeppelins, nor as to whether their construction was ever completed, but the few other types of dirigible airships used by the Germans have not been better served by fate than their more renowned sisters.
The Schuette-Lanz dirigible is something like a Zeppelin, but with a framework of bamboo instead of aluminium. There have been eight of these in use since the beginning of the war, and their fate or present condition is shown in the following list:
S L-3—Long since out of service.
S L-4—Struck by lightning in the Baltic.
S L-6—Believed to have fallen into the Baltic.
S L-8—In service in the Baltic.
S L-9—Burned at Stolp.
S L-14—In service in the Baltic.
S L-16—Believed to be still in service.
S L-20—In service.
There was also one Gross semi-rigid dirigible, which was put out of service at the end of February, 1915, and three Parseval non-rigid airships, one of which was destroyed in Russia, the second used as a schoolship, and the third understood to be still in service.